TOTALLY GEEKED!

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A reclusive woman who was found dead in her mobile home in Maine last week may have been dead as long as two-and-a-half years, police have revealed.

Lucie McNulty's body was found Friday, in the bedroom of her Wells, Maine home by police officers who were conducting a welfare check on the woman, who would have been 69 years old.

Concerned neighbors had been calling police to check in on the woman since 2013, but authorities never found a reason to enter the home.

The latest attempt to make contact with McNulty came amid efforts to foreclose on her home, and authorities say she owed thousands of dollars in unpaid property taxes.

 

 

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Shock: The body of Lucie McNulty was found dead inside her home in Wells, Maine (pictured above) last week when police were called to the mobile home to conduct a welfare check 

The state Medical Examiner's office ruled that McNulty died from ischemic cardiovascular disesase which is a narrowing of the heart arteries.

McNulty's death sent shockwaves through her community.

While she had never socialized with her neighbors much, they knew her well enough to report their concerns about her whereabouts years ago.

McNulty moved into the area in 2000, after spending most of her life teaching music in Buffalo, New York.

She never married and didn't have any children.

When she first moved to the area, McNulty tried to make friends and once invited a neighbor over for drinks even though it was just 10:30am in the morning.

Lois Martin, who lives two doors down from McNulty's home, recalled in an interview with the Portland Press Herald one of the strange conversations she had with the woman around the time she first moved to the community.

'She had called and asked sort of out of the blue, "You seem nice. Do you like me?"' Martin said. 'I said, "I guess, but I don’t really know you." And then she said, "No one else likes me."'

 

 

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Cause of death: It's believed that McNulty had been dead for two-and-a-half years, and that she died of a heart condition 

But she soon fell out with the other neighbors when she refused to contribute to a collective fund that paid for a plowing on their roads in the winter.

After that, she kept mostly to herself and only appeared outside to drive her car down to the mailbox.

Neighbors speculate that McNulty was having all of her food and household needs shipped to her residence since FedEx and UPS boxes came regularly.

It appears the last time McNulty was seen was in July 2013, the same month she was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

It's unclear what the medical emergency was, but there were concerns about her whereabouts after the stay and police were called to conduct a welfare check days later.

No one answered the door and the shades were drawn so they couldn't see into the house.

Congdon says during welfare checks, officers look for signs of neglect, like piling up mail or blood outside the home that would indicate the person inside might be in trouble.

But police apparently couldn't find these signs when they went to McNulty's home, so they never went inside.

 

 

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Close to home: Lois Martin, neighbor of Lucy McNulty, speaks about her neighbor who police found dead inside her home at 43 Atkins Lane 

Police were again called to her home in 2014, when one of McNulty's old co-workers in New York expressed concerns that he hadn't heard from her in a while and that a Christmas card he sent her was returned. Again, police did not force their way into her home.

'There was absolutely nothing to indicate anything was wrong. The power was still on,' Congdon said.

It wasn't until last week that police realized McNulty hadn't paid her property taxes in two years (she owed $2,740.09), her phone had been disconnected and all of her mail was being returned to sender.

In September 2014, a lien had been placed on her home and foreclosure efforts were set to begin in the coming months.

Police first contacted social security to see if she was still cashing checks, but decided to drive out to the home and conduct another welfare check while they waited to hear back from the agency.

'We decided that we had to get to the bottom of this one way or another,' Congdon said.

That's when they finally broke into the home and found McNulty's decayed corpse in her bedroom. An autopsy revealed she died of a heart condition and that nothing else was suspicious with her death.

Martin said she's disappointed with McNulty's death and the way it was handled by the community.

'I know their hands were tied,' Martin said, referring to the police. 'It’s just so sad to think that with all the people in this town, no one was concerned enough. No human being deserves to die like that.'